Word: solzhenitsyn
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...seeking support for his foreign policy last week, Henry Kissinger had to deal with one rather embarrassing critic of Soviet-American detente-Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It was Kissinger who advised President Ford not to receive Solzhenitsyn because of his view that the meeting might somehow harm relations with the Kremlin. Kissinger misjudged the effect on the public that this decision would have. Conservatives were outraged, and Senator Henry M. Jackson scornfully attacked Kissinger and Ford for "cowering in fear" rather than talking to Solzhenitsyn...
...Kissinger spoke in Minneapolis, the Russian Nobel prizewinner warned a group of Senators and Congressmen about the European Security Conference scheduled this month in Helsinki to settle East-West disputes unresolved from World War II. Solzhenitsyn predicted that in Helsinki "an amicable agreement of diplomatic shovels will bury and pack down corpses still breathing in a common grave...
Kissinger picked up the challenge. In Milwaukee, he made it clear that he had great respect for the Russian as a writer. But then the Secretary declared, "If I understand the message of Solzhenitsyn, it is that the U.S. should pursue an aggressive policy to overthrow the Soviet system. But I believe that if his views became the national policy of the U.S., we would be confronted with considerable threat of military conflict . . . I believe that the consequences of his views would not be acceptable to the American people or to the world...
Along with these words, Kissinger tried to repair the breach-and his own miscalculation-by having Vice President Nelson Rockefeller attempt to arrange a private meeting between Kissinger and Solzhenitsyn. The Russian rejected the proposal...
...witness the prideful huzzas from the Kremlin hierarchy. Similarly, the Ford Administration, which is at least as eager to show tangible results from détente, seemed convinced that the big space trip was worth it. But other Americans are less certain. Along with critics like Russian Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, they may wonder whether the Soviets simply got a free guide to superior U.S. technology...